On Wednesday, March 3rd we left for the Lake Superior Regional in Duluth, Minnesota at noon, and arrived at about 5:30pm. I am a senior and part of the build team for 4818, The Herd. At Duluth I occasionally stand scouted, which is where we use an app that some of our students and mentors developed to rate teams as they play their matches. For a good part of Friday, I was the fill in safety captain that every team has in their pit area. I also helped fix any issues on the robot that we found during matches. Talking to all the teams was an amazing experience. I talked to other teams as they came to check out our pit and robot. I was able to speak to others with the same interests as me and exchange information about how best to do different parts of the game. The amount of collective knowledge was quite outstanding. I learned so much from talking to other teams, and as a whole the experience was amazing. This is my first and only year doing FIRST Robotics and I regret not joining earlier.

Building the robot is a long process. After kickoff, the team went straight into brainstorming mode to figure out what exactly we want the robot to be able to accomplish. After we determined the main tasks, the experienced members of the team went to Fargo Automation to design the robot using 3D software.

While those members were busy at Fargo Automation, the rest of the builders worked on learning how to do everything they would need to know to be able to build the robot. They then proceeded to build the outer works for the practice field while the parts were being made for the robot.

The programming team worked on learning how to code and also built a prototype of the robot’s shooting mechanism. They tested out the code that they wrote for shooting and vision sensing.

Once the parts began to come in, both builders and programmers worked together to build the robot and test the code that the programmers wrote.

Yes, the robot is the main focus of FRC. But just as important as it is the build the robot, it is also important to build a practice field for your robot to be tested on. It is hard to know whether or not your robot properly works without being able to test it.

According to our build team, the building of the practice field went pretty smoothly. The team mentioned that the measuring of the materials needs to be exact. Cutting the wood to the exact dimensions was difficult for them, especially since it is the first year on the team for many of them. The team spent the first week or so building the field, waiting for the robot to be designed and parts to come in. Their goal was to get as much of the field done so that once the parts for the robot came, they would be able to build.

Our builders built six of the nine outerworks. They did not build the sally port, portcullis, or drawbridge.

An FRC team does many things throughout the on and off season to market their team. The team website is something that is constantly changing and improving. The website contains information about team members, the team’s history, articles about the team’s news, and many more. The website also links you to the team’s social media pages.

Social media is a big aspect of the marketing team. Social media is a way to put the team out for the world to see, and also to keep in touch with other FRC teams. The social media pages are also a way to document the team’s progress and season via pictures and videos.

Team outreach is an important part of the FRC experience. The marketing team keeps in touch with other teams. They can help start new teams, give advice to new teams, or simply just talk about their designs and/or strategy.

The marketing team helps put together events for the team to showcase their work and to help spread the idea of FRC. The team goes out into the public to help anyone, especially younger students, get excited about building robots and learning the ideals of FRC.

The team sets up multiple presentations for the Chairman’s award and for sponsorships. The Chairman’s award is a presentation showcasing all of the work the team has done within their community and around the world. It involves answering online questions, creating a video, and making a presentation to present to judges at regional competitions. Gaining sponsors are important for the team to grow. Sponsors can give the team anything from money, to parts, to handouts. The marketing team works on making scripts to contact sponsors and then calling or emailing the sponsors.

At competitions, members from the marketing team go to other teams’ pits to talk to them about their robots. They also go to gain information about their strategy. On the flip side of that, the marketing team is responsible for designing their own pit design so that it is both easy to navigate and is appealing to the eye.

The marketing team is in charge of making handouts at competitions. This can include brochures explaining the team, business cards showing the team’s contact information, and/or little things that other teams can pick up (bracelets, key chains, buttons, etc.).

T-shirts are also a part of the marketing team’s responsibilities. The shirts help other teams know who you are and where you are from. They can also promote your sponsors. The shirts can display the team logo and help with team spirit.

Lastly, at competitions, teams are allowed to have a flag that the announcer holds up when the team is announced at competitions. This year, teams are also in charge of making a team standard. This is a flag that goes above the control station during a match. It can have anything on it that showcases the team.

Members and Mentors from FRC 4818 The Herd helped out at the local FLL Scrimmage. Between everyone, we were everything from project design judges to traffic control. Thank you to the following members and mentors for helping make this scrimmage go so well!

The 2016 FIRST Robotics Competition game is Stronghold. The objective of the game is to earn points in a variety of ways. Points can be earned by shooting boulders into the castle, crossing outer works, or breaching and scaling the castle.

There are two alliances during the game, each consisting of three robots. Alliances can earn points in numerous ways. One way to do this is to cross over the outer works. Outer works must be crossed twice in order to score. Alliances may also shoot boulders at the castle via the high goal and/or the low goal. Each alliance is allowed a defensive robot to try and stop the opposing robots from shooting at the castle. After eight boulders have been successfully shot into the castle, the castle is captured and all robots must sit on the batter surrounding the castle. In the last 20 seconds, robots may scale the tower to gain additional points.

The game begins with a 15 second autonomous period. Robots can attempt to touch or cross the outer works and/or shoot boulders at the castle.

During the month of March we had the fortune of visiting the FM Engineers Club during one of their monthly meetings. Our President Grace Bailey, Marketing Captain Bailey Aanenson, Lead Programmer Andrew Vetter, and Safety Captain Cole Amundson were those that attended. This meeting took place at the Kelly Inn in Fargo. We went with the goal of thanking the club for their generous donation and explain what First Robotics is. There was also other various NDSU groups presenting alongside us.

It started with us getting provided delicious food by the FM Engineers which was shortly followed by their typical agenda. This schedule consisted of discussions on upcoming social gatherings and how to better spread engineering values to the community. After this task was completed, the presentations came on. We were last on the list and we listened to various college level clubs and groups present on their differing values and competitions. Our group had a smashing presentation displaying the goals of First Robotics and how we performed in our regional competitions. This led to a very nice appreciation visit for one of our great sponsors that we hope to continue being in contact with.

March 31st Eastwood Elementary-We recently attended our first elementary school visit at Eastwood Elementary in West Fargo, ND. We showcased our robot and our team to over two hundred 4th and 5th graders. We had the goal of teaching the kids about the opportunities they have for science, technology, engineering and math classes in the future as well as the opportunities they have for robotics through FIRST Lego League.
Through both a presentation and an interactive segment, we displayed FIRST values. First, we gave a quick presentation and showed a rocking video that received oohs and ahhs from the kids. Next, we gave a robot demo of SOLID, while explaining a couple of concepts our robot and answering questions about our team and robot. We ended our day with a noodle throwing contest to get the kids excited about FIRST Robotics and the physical aspects of the game. Through this visit we hope inspire these children to become interested in not only FIRST Robotics but to inform them about the all the opportunities available to them in STEM fields.

Some Sheyenne and West Fargo High School students are headed to a national robotics competition.

Before heading out to the National FIRST Robotics Competition in St. Louis, students showcased their robot at John Deere in Fargo.

The robot moved around and stacked containers.

This is the third year for the students and they raised around $50,000 from sponsors.
“It’s really awesome to actually let people see what we’re doing because I think a lot of times, robotics is kind of one of those sports that’s not really super recognized and the newspaper reports a lot about you know basketball, baseball, but robotics I feel like it needs more attention because I feel like it’s a really important aspect of the community. It has a lot of real world skills involved in it,” said Marketing Team Captain Bailey Aanenson.
One of the goals of the team is to introduce others to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) – While high schools are cheering on teams in the state basketball tournament, a more futurisitic team is preparing for its sports world championship.

The West Fargo Robotics Team showed off its victorious robot today at John Deere in Fargo. Team members have been working with mentors from the company, as well as Microsoft, to develop the high-tech machine. It’s designed to stack and move recycling bins.

The students recently won their regional championship in Duluth.

Bailey Aanenson/West Fargo Robotics, “It’s taking everything we’ve learned at a basic level in the classroom, like, times ten. And it’s giving it a real world application.”

The team will compete in the world championship on April 22nd in St. Louis.